The availability of Large Language Models (LLMs) has made it simpler for builders to make chatbots. Large firms equivalent to OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft, have made ChatGPT, Bard, and Bing Chat extensively obtainable. However, non-tech prosperous audiences won’t pay attention to a few of these bots. Spain-based Luzia is making an attempt to introduce AI chatbot tech to customers by way of a WhatsApp-based bot.
The firm, based in 2023 by Álvaro Martínez Higes, Javier Andrés, and Carlos Pérez, is making an attempt to handle the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking marketplace for chatbots. Using Luzia is fairly simple. You can save the chatbot as a contact in your telephone and begin speaking to it on WhatsApp or Telegram.
Luzia co-founders from left: Javier Andrés, Carlos Pérez, and Álvaro Martínez Higes Image Credits: Luzia
The starttup stated greater than 17 million customers have interacted with Luzia so far with 8 million of them lively on a month-to-month foundation. While it didn’t point out its every day lively customers, the startup stated it receives 13 million every day requests.
Martínez Higes instructed TechCrunch that most individuals ahead Luzia as a contact to have their associates chat with the bot.
The firm makes use of your telephone quantity to detect the nation that you just’re in and begins speaking in Spanish or Portuguese. As the corporate is increasing within the U.S., Luzia will begin talking in English however in the event you discuss to it in Spanish, it can default to Spanish. But provided that it depends on GPT tech, it could possibly converse in different languages as effectively.
Luzia at present is suitable with customers in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, and now the U.S.
The concept is to introduce Luzia to customers who won’t find out about AI fashions. The firm stated that lots of first-time customers examine the bot with a voice assistant, equivalent to Siri or Alexa. While the app reveals a primary onboarding message with among the use circumstances, the startup isn’t actively sending academic messages to customers to allow them to find out about totally different units of options.
The firm makes use of a mixture of fashions equivalent to GPT 3.5/4, Llama, and Kandinsky to energy the interplay. Just like some other chatbot, customers can ask Luzia to generate textual content for e-mail or reply questions. They also can ahead a voice be aware or an audio file for the bot to transcribe it. Plus, Luzia can generate photos based mostly on the given immediate.
Asking Luzia in regards to the climate Image Credits: Luzia
Luzia lately raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures. Other buyers equivalent to Basketball Hall of Famer Pao Gasol, A* Capital, Abstract Ventures, FJ Labs, Globo Venture, Mike Santos of Technisys, Sean Ryan of Sean Investments LTD, and Grupo Product. Before this spherical, the corporate had raised $3 million.
The firm is protecting the bot free for the second and specializing in progress and creating person worth.
“We have seen monetization tools like unlocking unlimited messages, long-length transcriptions, and giving access to better models through paid plans. But those are quickly becoming commoditized in the industry. If we would have gone with that route, we would have been dead,” Martínez Higes stated.
Adina Tecklu, a companion at Khosla Ventures stated that Luzia is positioned effectively to handle the private assistant market. Tecklu added that simply addressing the LatAm and the Iberian Peninsula market is a big alternative.
“I have been looking at this space for some time — how can AI truly power consumer interactions In Luzia, we saw a strong team with a very deep understanding of their consumer base resulting in exciting early traction. Their product is truly resonating with Spanish and Portuguese consumers and having such early user traction is impressive,” Tecklu instructed TechCrunch over e-mail.
This yr, Khosla has invested in a number of startups engaged on AI and LLM tech together with studying coach app Ello and conversational studying app Quazel.